thursday 18th december
7.00 pm ‘AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
... A Tribute to Monty Python’ by The First City
Theatre Foundation
OFF THE MANTLE #20

saturday 20th december
6.30 pm ‘The Indian Christmas’ – A talk by Robinson
and Carol singing by The Delhi Youth for Christ
Choir

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thursday 4th december
6.30 pm IIC Annexe Lecture Room
“The New American President” a talk by David
Barsamian

The election of Barack Obama has been greeted with
enthusiasm, not only in the U.S. but in some other
countries as well. It is understandable. People
wanted change. The arrogant and criminal Bush-Cheney
regime, arguably one of the most unpopular in U.S.
history, is on its way out the door. America's
long 8-year nightmare is almost over. Regime change
will happen on 20th January 2009.
But what can we expect from the charismatic Obama? A
kinder, gentler more articulate manager of the
American empire or someone who will dismantle the
American military machine and its worldwide
archipelago of bases and use the money to benefit
the people?

It's too soon to say with certainty which direction
Obama will take. However, he has surrounded himself
with many unimaginative Clinton-era apparatchiks.
His comments about Afghanistan,
Pakistan, Palestine, Iran, and rebuilding the
American military should give one pause for concern.
Unless progressive forces inside the United States
apply pressure on Obama, it is quite conceivable he
will not become the change we believe in. However,
we can savor for the moment, the historical
symbolism of a black man soon to be occupying a
house built by black slaves.

David Barsamian is
the award winning founder and director of
Alternative Radio, the independent weekly series
based in Boulder, Colorado.
AR presents information and perspectives that are
ignored or distorted in the corporate-controlled
media. The one-hour program is broadcast on public
radio stations in the United States, Canada,
Australia, and other countries. His interviews and
articles appear in The Progressive, The Nation, Z
and other journals and magazines. He is winner of
the Media Education Award, the ACLU's Upton Sinclair
Award for independent journalism, the Rocky Mountain
Peace and Justice Award and the Cultural Freedom
Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation. The Institute
for Alternative Journalism named him one of its Top
Ten Media Heroes. He is the author of numerous books
with Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Eqbal Ahmad, Tariq
Ali and Edward Said. His latest books are ‘What
We Say Goes’ with Noam Chomsky and ‘Targeting
Iran’.
He lectures all over the world. In December 2007, he
gave the Eqbal Ahmad lectures in Karachi, Islamabad
and Lahore.

Collaboration with the India International Centre

friday 5th december
4.00 pm ‘The Never Ending War on Terror’ a talk by
David BarsamianatArafat Hall, Jamia Millia Islamia

The War on Terror began long before September 11,
2001. From the Russian anarchists of the late 19th
century to the ‘Irgun’ Jewish terrorists of the mid
20th century, from CIA operations in
Guatemala, Costa Rica, Peru, the Dominican
Republic, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Panama,
Mexico and Colombia to the attacks on US Embassies
in Kenya and Tanzania and the attack on the USS
Cole. But George Bush’s biblical 'The Task That
Never Ends' started with his retaliation against the
Al Qaeda and Taliban based in Afganistan.

In May 2003, Amnesty International
charged, “The ‘war on terror’, far from
making the world a safer place, has made it more
dangerous by curtailing human rights, undermining
the rule of international law and shielding
governments from scrutiny. It has deepened divisions
among people of different faiths and origins, sowing
the seeds for more conflict.”

In September 2008, the
RAND Corporation presented the
results of a comprehensive study for ‘Defeating
Terrorist Groups’ before the US House Armed
Services Committees. They recommended that The U.S.
military not be “drawn into combat operations in
Muslim countries where its presence is likely to
increase terrorist recruitment." and recommended
"ending the notion of a 'war' on terrorism" and
"Moving away from military references. They also
said that “there was no battlefield solution to
countering terrorism."

However hypocrisy on the issue of terrorism is still
mind-boggling. Washington defines the discourse and
the media echo the official line. When the U.S. or
any of its clients such as Israel and Turkey engage
in terrorism it is by definition not terrorism.
However, terrorism carried out by individuals and
small groups is terrorism. In the "City of God," St.
Augustine tells the story of a pirate captured by
Alexander the Great. The Emperor angrily demanded of
him, "How dare you molest the seas?" To which the
pirate replied, "How dare you molest the whole
world? Because I do it with a small boat, I am
called a pirate and a thief. You, with a great navy,
molest the world and are called an emperor." St. Augustine
thought the pirate's answer was "elegant and
excellent."

David Barsamian speaks today when India is faced
with this problem in an acute manner, where
separatist Naga groups, ULFA & Bodo agitators in
Assam, Maoist Guerrillas in Andhra & Orissa, Islamic
Jihadists in Kashmir, the Narendra Modi Government
of Gujarat and the Hindu chauvinists of Malegaon &
Khandamal could easily all be labeled as terrorists
or freedom fighters or protectors of their
communities depending which way you look at it.

The
word bansuri originates in the Sanskrit bans
[bamboo] + swar [musical note]. It was
usually played in folk music and it was only the
genius of
Pandit
Pannalal Ghosh
in the middle of the 20th century that
transformed it into an instrument of Indian
classical music. Using
longer bansuris with larger bores and a seventh hole
placed 90 degrees around from the line of the other
six holes he managed to obtain
better coverage in the lower octaves.

Indian musicians believe that ‘gayaki’
(singing), is the purest form of music, a gift from
god. Instrumentalists have always dreamt of being
able to play in ‘gayaki ang’ (vocal style)
and sing through their instrument with the
versatility of the human voice. For centuries,
musicians attempted to create techniques and
instruments which would recreate this technique.
The present form of playing an instrument in this
vocal style was perfected by Ustad Vilayat Khan on
the sitar.

Abhay Phagre renders this evening some ragas of
Indian classical music as well as some folk tunes in
this style. His initiation into classical music was
his training as a percussionist, tabla under Prof.
Kiran Deshpandel. He graduated from the Khairagarh
University of Music and began to express his musical
creativity with the flute after training with Shri
Ravindra Garuda at Bhopal and Pandit Ragunath Seth
at Mumbai. He refined his knowledge with Madhup
Mudgal in Delhi and Ms. Meera Rao in Bhopal. He has
performed in many prestigious festivals abroad and
is presently associated with All India Radio,
Bhopal.

The
system of shared beliefs, values, customs,
behaviours, and artifacts that the members of
society use to cope with their world and with one
another, and that are transmitted from generation to
generation through learning is what is defined as
culture. This, ‘way
of life for an entire society’, includes ‘codes of
manners,
dress,
language,
religion,
rituals, norms of behavior such as law
and morality, and systems of belief as well as the
art.’

During the colonial period culture came to be
identified with civilization as the ‘cultured’ west
accomplishing its ‘mission civilizatrice’ in the
‘dark continent’ and in ‘barbaric Asia’. Fortunately
the discussion on what constitutes culture has
become more nuanced and one can talk about ‘folk’
culture as being different from ‘high’ culture (
classical music, museum quality art) but not
superior or inferior.

Discussions on culture have become more relevant
with immigration and globalization. The German model
of ‘leitkultur’ (core culture) says that minorities
can have an identity of their own, but they should
at least support the core concepts of the culture on
which the society is based. This is contrasted with
the American theory of the ‘melting pot’ where all
the immigrant cultures are mixed and amalgamated
without state intervention and the recent British
attempts at ‘multiculturism’, a policy in which
immigrants are permitted to preserve their own
cultures with the different groups interacting
peacefully within one nation.

In his talk this evening Dr. Varma discusses these
ideas with a special emphasis on what constitutes
the culture we seem so proud of, pointing out how
India has always been a multicultural society and
particularly the role of the state in promoting
‘culture’. As the retiring Director General of the
Indian Council for Cultural Relations and as former
Director of the Nehru Centre in Londonhe is uniquely qualified to talk
about a subject he has been involved with for so
many years. He is a distinguished member of the Indian Foreign Service and is the
author of over a dozen books amongst which Krishna: The
Playful Divine,
Ghalib: The Man, The Times,
The Havelis of Old Delhi.
His books on a
contemporary subject include The Great Indian
Middle Class and
Being Indian: The Truth About Why the 21st Century
Will Be
India’s. His latest book
Vatsyayana’s Kama Sutra. : The Art of
Making Love to a Woman is being followed soon by
a less sexy work on the pivotal issues of culture
and identity. He was
conferred an honorary doctoral degree for his
contribution to the fields of diplomacy, literature,
culture and aesthetics by the
University of Indianapolis in 2005.

thursday 18th december
99977777
7.00 pm ‘AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
... A Tribute to Monty Python’ by The First City
Theatre Foundation
OFF THE MANTLE #20In
the 1960s, the satire boom in England opened up the
way for a fresh, inventive generation of young
writers and performers to flourish on TV and to take
comedy in a new and exciting direction. Among them
were five graduates from the Oxbridge comedy scene -
John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Terry
Jones and Eric Idle. Joined by an eccentric young
American upstart named Terry Gilliam, the six
decided to team up and work together on 'something
new', and were given their own series, famously
being told "you can have thirteen shows, but that's
it". Having toyed with several names (including Owl
Stretching Time and The Toad Elevating Moment), the
group settled on the appropriately bizarre Monty
Python's Flying Circus.Their writing effectively
threw away the rulebook of traditional sketch
writing, and the show grew into a phenomenon, so
much so that George Harrison claimed the spirit of
the Beatles had passed onto Monty Python. With a
huge and growing global following, the Pythons were
encouraged to continue working together on three
hilarious and groundbreaking feature films, while
the Flying Circus, which started it all, has come to
be seen as probably the most ingenious and
imaginative comedy show ever to grace British
television. The First City Theatre Foundation
celebrates the 20th edition of the Off The Mantle
readings by paying tribute to the comic genius of
Monty Python.

saturday 20th december
6.30 pm ‘The Indian Christmas’ – A talk by Robinson
and Carol singing by The Delhi Youth for Christ
Choir

Christians
have been settled in India since 52 AD with coming
of St. Thomas the Apostle, about the same time that
Christianity reached Europe. Since then Christians have settled mainly in Kerala,
Goa and the North East. The celebration of Christmas
‘feels’ different with the mango and banana
leaves, the ‘diyas’ the poinsettias and the
elaborate ‘rangolis’ of Santa Claus. And the varied
local customs, from piety to joy, from urban
revelries to rural solemnity, from Catholic to
Protestant and between the Western and Eastern
Orthodox Churches and sometimes a mélange of all of
them which gives a unique flavour to Christmas in
India.

Interspersed with carols and hymns by the choir
Robinson examines this distinctive Indian Christmas
with its blend of Western and Indian, Naga from
Kerala Christian and the traditions of the
Antiochians.

Another characteristic feature of the Christmas in
India is the music. The Delhi Youth for Christ will
perform a wide range of hymns in English, Hindi,
Punjabi and Manipuri drawn not only from the various
regions but also the local musical styles of the
group.

Robinson is an alumnus of St. Stephen's college,
Delhi, a Theologian, Meditation Practitioner and a
Poet. He has an advanced certificate from Soon Bible
Studies and papers on comparative religion. He is
currently researching on the mystical and meditative
aspects in various religious traditions. His book
Christianity; An Indian Theological perspective
awaits publication. He has a published poetry
collection. Reminiscences: The Poetry Of Communion.
Robinson also conducts walks on specific themes in
Delhi like the Churches of Delhi, Dargahs of Delhi
apart from the old city and Mehrauli.

The Delhi Youth for Christ is a movement working
with young people enabling them to discover the
purposeful life. They spend their time studying,
teaching, counseling working with schools, college
students and underprivileged groups. This volunteer
group is composed of young people from Delhi,
Himachal, Chattisgarh, Manipur, Nagaland, Kerala,
Karnataka, U.P. and Punjab, a veritable United States of India.

The Attic traditional home made Christmas cake and
Hot ? punch will be served.